The present invention relates to communications, and more particularly, to systems for requesting and receiving data from a remote data source.
Data communications continue to pervade more aspects of business and personal communications as the technology develops. The increased use of electronic systems to communicate, such as via e-mail, the worldwide web, and various global networks, has brought increased dependence on the availability of such systems. Although many offices and homes are well-connected, mobile data communications are less mature.
Problems associated with mobile data communications are particularly acute on commercial aircraft. Commercial aircraft passengers demand faster and cheaper access to information sources used in their offices and homes, but many options are expensive, impractical, or unavailable. For example, many mobile communications systems rely on cellular modems to connect a computer to a service provider. Cellular systems, however, generally cannot be used on aircraft for a variety of technical and regulatory reasons. Similarly, wireless local area networks (LANs) are effective in some environments, but are generally unsuitable for aircraft, due in part to the limited range of such LANs. The current primary alternative for passengers on commercial aircraft is to connect to a service provider using the dedicated air-to-ground telephones available to passengers on some aircraft. Access charges for such telephones, however, are high, especially for low rate or high content data transfers requiring considerable time to complete the transaction.
A communications system according to various aspects of the present invention may comprise a data source, an information request system coupled to the data source and adapted to request information from the data source, and a receiver coupled to the data source and adapted to receive the information requested by the information request system. The data source may comprise any conventional data source, such as an internet service provider, and the receiver may comprise any suitable receiver for receiving data from the data source. The information request system is coupled to the data source by any appropriate medium, such as airport wireless LAN, VHF radio signal, or satellite link, and may vary the type of connection according to the availability of various communications media. Similarly, the receiver is coupled to the data source via any appropriate and available medium, such as a satellite link, and is suitably different from the medium coupling the information request system to the data source.